Apple Crunch Muffins
My morning breakfast routine is anything but, exciting. Between the usual oatmeal with flaxseeds, or cereal, there is nothing to look forward to. Well, almost nothing, but for the occasional muffins. What I like about them muffins is, they are perfectly sized, not too sweet, can be made healthy and most of all tastier than the blah oatmeal. So once in a while, I treat myself with this something special. The regulars so far have been blueberry muffins for breakfast (because I get my fruit serving) and banana muffins for evening tea.
After reading this tip, I always have organic apple sauce on hand. I try to balance out the fat in any recipe by using applesauce + whole eggs or oil + egg whites. By the way, if you haven’t tried applesauce yet, do try ‘em. You won’t miss the fat. If ½ cup of applesauce can make such a soft, fat-free muffin, it made me wonder how muffins solely made with it would taste and feel like. I searched the internet, combined two recipes that I found interesting and voila, perfect low-fat breakfast muffins.
What I like about these muffins is that they freeze well. Not only are they delicious eaten warm, the applesauce takes care of the softness even after freezing. Microwaving them for few seconds brings them back to life with the same delicate texture. I make at least a dozen of this, that I can escape oatmeal for few mornings to come.
Oh! How can forget to mention the crunchy cinnamon-y topping that makes it a real treat!
Ingredients
Muffin
All purpose flour or Maida – 2 cups
Applesauce – 1 cup
Buttermilk or Milk – ¾ cup
Eggs – 2
Sugar or Brown sugar – ¾ cup
Canola oil- ¼ cup
Baking soda – 1 tsp
Salt – ½ tsp
Vanilla extract – 1 tsp
Nut Crunch Topping
Brown sugar – 2 tbsp
Pecan – ¼ cup, chopped
Cinnamon – ½ tsp, ground
Method
Preheat the oven 400F. Mix the ingredients for the topping in a bowl. Line a muffin pan with 12 muffin cups. Mix flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl.
In another bowl, whisk oil and sugar until combined. Add the eggs. Making sure the eggs are well incorporated, add applesauce and vanilla extract. To this wet mix, add flour alternating with buttermilk in two batches. If you want to bite into apple pieces, add one Golden Delicious apple, prepared as said above, to the batter. Spoon this mixture into the prepared muffin pan and sprinkle with the pecan-sugar-cinnamon topping. Bake for 20–23 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool them on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Wrap each muffin in a plastic wrap individually and freeze them in an airtight container.
This is my entry for WBB – Spice it up, Nandita’s brainchild and hosted by Trupti this month.
